one shot: Bun Rieu at Ba Le Sandwich
Good ol’ tomato and crab noodle soup from Southern Vietnam: bún riêu (pronounced |boon rhee-oo|). The broth looks alarmingly spicy but this soup is actually never spicy. The orange red color comes from tomato and annatto seeds, and if you’re lucky, crab roe (if fresh crabs are used for the soup).
The sweetness of the broth comes from freshwater paddy crabs, where the whole crab (meat and shell) is ground to a paste and strained for the juice. It’s a delicate, distinctive sweetness that can’t be reproduced with dashi no moto, meat bones or mushroom. To deepen the flavor, the cook adds some mắm ruốc, fermented krill paste, to the broth.
Traditionally, bun rieu has crab meat and tofu for the protein part, but bun rieu at Ba Le Sandwich is ladened with cha lua, pork and shrimp.
Traditionally, it’s one of those commoner’s noodle soups that every other street stall sells in Vietnam, nutritious, filling, unrefined, a richness of everyday life and earthy pleasures. Somehow I grew up not thinking much of it and was never impressed by it. In the bustle of North Cali, bun rieu is still nothing more than a commoner’s noodle soup, never elevated to the level of party food, but the more I think about it, the more I find it romantic. In one bowl, I was tasting the unctuous harmony of wetland and freshwater, of simple vegetables and grains and crustaceans that grow up together in one environment and end up together in one pot, or at least that’s how the noodle soup was originally designed. Do things taste best in the company of what they grow up with? I’m inclined to think so.
Back to a matter-of-fact viewpoint, the inside of Ba Le Sandwich in East Oakland, has been renovated earlier this year into a neat little diner enough to sit 12-14 people, since most customers come for to-go banh mi and on-the-counter goodies such as mungbean milk and sesame beignet. They have hand down the best banh mi in the East Bay north, but everything else tastes good because they know how to season things.
Address: Banh Mi Ba Le (Ba Le Sandwich)
1909 International Blvd
Oakland, CA 94606
(510) 261-9800
One bowl of delta romanticism: $6.50. Another awesome thing about this place: they open at 6:30 am.
Banh cuon – steamed rice rolls stuffed with pork and mushroom (the white things), and accessories.
Banh canh – It’s supposed to be tapioca noodle soup with short fat noodle made from tapioca and rice flour, but Ba Le uses Japanese udon instead. The broth is kept original, though.
Wow! This blog looks exactly like my old one! It’s on a totally different topic but it has pretty much the same layout and design. Superb choice of colors!
1I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you make this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz answer back as I’m looking to design my own blog and would like to know where u got this from. thanks
2I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post…
3It’s actually a nice and helpful piece of info. I’m glad that you shared this useful information with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
4I like this weblog very much so much excellent information.
5Simply desire to say your article is as amazing. The clearness in your post is just great and i could assume you are an expert on this subject. Well with your permission allow me to grab your feed to keep updated with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please keep up the rewarding work.
6obviously like your web site but you need to take a look at the spelling on quite a few of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling problems and I find it very troublesome to tell the reality then again I will certainly come again again.
7Nearly all of whatever you assert is supprisingly precise and it makes me wonder why I had not looked at this in this light before. Your article truly did turn the light on for me personally as far as this specific topic goes. Nevertheless there is 1 issue I am not necessarily too comfy with and whilst I attempt to reconcile that with the main theme of your position, permit me see exactly what the rest of your visitors have to say.Well done.
8I keep listening to the news broadcast lecture about receiving free online grant applications so I have been looking around for the most excellent site to get one. Could you tell me please, where could i get some?
9Great post, you have pointed out some good points, I too believe this s a very excellent website.
10Great wordpress blog here.. It’s hard to find quality writing like yours these days. I really appreciate people like you! take care
11Just what I was searching for, appreciate it for putting up.
12I just could not depart your web site prior to suggesting that I actually enjoyed the standard info an individual supply for your visitors? Is gonna be back often in order to check out new posts
13Enjoyed looking through this, very good stuff, thankyou. “Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.” by Euripides.
14My partner and I absolutely love your blog and find many of your post’s to be what precisely I’m looking for. Does one offer guest writers to write content for yourself? I wouldn’t mind producing a post or elaborating on a few of the subjects you write in relation to here. Again, awesome site!
15naturally like your web site but you have to test the spelling on quite a few of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling issues and I to find it very troublesome to tell the truth however I’ll definitely come again again.
16I’ve been absent for some time, but now I remember why I used to love this web site. Thank you, I will try and check back more frequently. How frequently you update your web site?
17There are some fascinating deadlines on this article but I don’t know if I see all of them middle to heart. There is some validity but I’ll take hold opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we want extra! Added to FeedBurner as properly
18I really enjoy reading on this site, it holds good posts.
19Great line up. We will be linking to this great article on our site. Keep up the good writing.
20I just like the helpful info you provide in your articles. I’ll bookmark your weblog and check again here regularly. I am quite sure I will learn many new stuff proper right here! Best of luck for the following!
21I’ve been surfing online greater than 3 hours lately, but I never found any fascinating article like yours. It’s pretty price enough for me. In my view, if all site owners and bloggers made just right content material as you did, the net will likely be a lot more useful than ever before.
22Hi my friend! I want to say that this article is amazing, great written and come with approximately all important infos. I’d like to look more posts like this.
23Great goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you are just extremely excellent. I actually like what you’ve acquired here, certainly like what you’re saying and the way in which you say it. You make it entertaining and you still take care of to keep it smart. I cant wait to read much more from you. This is really a great web site.
24The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I imply, I do know it was my option to read, however I actually thought youd have one thing interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about one thing that you might repair when you werent too busy searching for attention.
25Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all of us you really know what you’re talking about! Bookmarked. Kindly also visit my site =). We could have a link exchange agreement between us!
26My partner and I stumbled over here by a different page and thought I may as well check things out. I like what I see so now i am following you. Look forward to looking at your web page for a second time.
27Appreciate it for all your efforts that you have put in this. very interesting info .
28I do agree with all of the concepts you’ve presented on your post. They’re very convincing and can certainly work. Nonetheless, the posts are very quick for newbies. May you please extend them a little from subsequent time? Thank you for the post.
29I just could not depart your web site before suggesting that I extremely enjoyed the standard information a person provide for your visitors? Is going to be back often in order to check up on new posts
30Howdy very nice website!! Guy .. Excellent .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds alsoKI’m happy to find so many useful info here in the post, we’d like work out extra strategies on this regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .
31Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing some research on that. And he just bought me lunch as I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch!
32Does your site have a contact page? I’m having a tough time locating it but, I’d like to shoot you an email. I’ve got some recommendations for your blog you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great blog and I look forward to seeing it expand over time.
33I’ve learn several just right stuff here. Certainly worth bookmarking for revisiting. I surprise how much effort you set to make any such fantastic informative site.
34